Up until recently they had drastically different reputations. Philip Rivers, the Chargers star who was drafted No. 4 overall in 2004, was considered one of the NFL’s golden boys — an untouchable leader who just might be on his way to the Hall of Fame. Romo, an undrafted free agent in 2003, was viewed as a good story, but also as a player who made too many mistakes and could never lead his team to a Super Bowl.

The truth, though, is that these players are very similar. In fact, Romo actually has a better career passer rating than Rivers, though not by much.

Today, we show just how close these two players’ career statistics really are. You can decide which one you’d rather have quarterbacking your team.

PHILIP RIVERS TONY ROMO

Games 108 106

Neither player was his team’s starter right out of the gate. But once they were given the job, neither gave it up. Rivers has started every game for the Chargers since the beginning of the 2006 season.

Attempts 3,300 2,875

This is surprising, mainly because the Chargers have had better running games than the Cowboys in these players’ tenures. The Chargers have also had better overall offenses, though, and probably had more offensive plays.

Completions 2,105 1,858

Rivers had more pass attempts, so it stands to reason that he had more completions.

Passing yards 26,151 22,907

Rivers had more attempts and completions, so it stands to reason that he had more passing yards. However, dig a little deeper and you’ll see that they had almost exactly the same yards-per-attempt average (7.92 for Rivers, 7.96 for Romo) and yards-per-completion average (12.42 and 12.32).

Percentage 63.8 64.6

This is probably the first real indication that, overall, Romo’s play has been a little underrated. These are both pretty good completion percentages, and Romo’s is a little better despite playing with less dynamic offenses.

Touchdowns 175 158

If you are making the argument for Rivers, this is one stat you would point to. Although it only averages to a couple more touchdown passes per year, 17 more career passing touchdowns is worth noting. After all, it’s about scoring points.

PHILIP RIVERS TONY ROMO

Interceptions 88 85

Surprisingly, at significantly less than an interception per game, these aren’t the worst interception numbers ever, although not near the best, either. Both these quarterbacks take stupid chances at times that hurt their teams. Romo’s late interceptions have probably cost his team more games, although Rivers has had some dreadful moments, too.

Rating 94.8 95.1

OK, so passer rating might not be the absolute best gauge of how good a QB is. After all, Peyton Manning’s career passer rating is 95.4, only slightly better than either of these players, and he obviously has been a much better player. But it does give a pretty good feel. Here it shows that both Rivers and Romo have been very good but probably not great QBs during the regular season. A fair assessment for both.

Playoff record 2-4 1-3

Football is a team game, so it’s not always fair to pin a playoff record solely on the QBs. But this does show that neither Rivers nor Romo has been able to lead his team to a lot of playoff wins, even after very good regular seasons. This stat definitely speaks to a clutch factor that both players seem to be missing.

Final assessment: The numbers show that Rivers and Romo are very close in both talent and clutch ability. They both have big ability but make big mistakes at big moments to hurt their teams.

In the end, it is clear that whether Chargers fans like it or not, Philip Rivers and Tony Romo are near identical quarterbacks.